Summer means s’mores, but if you live in the desert in the summer then making s’mores over a fire is not the best idea! So these baked s’more bars are just as fun to eat, and you won’t have to sweat it out over a hot fire! S’more Bars Ingredients 2 cups plus 1 tb. flour 6 graham crackers 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 3/4 cup softened butter 1/2 cup sugar 3/4 cup brown […]

Convenience food: it doesn’t sound good, does it? Like a frozen pizza or one of those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store (okay, both of those can be good sometimes.) Even so, I think it’s funny how squishy the line is between “prepared food” and “homemade.” As far as I can tell, these days virtually nobody actually makes food from scratch from scratch – I mean, what would that even mean? Is anybody out there milling their own flour? But on the […]

So, let’s talk salad dressing. You can buy it and it’s easy and it’s good. But is it good? Well, I often find that I do not want to eat salad when it’s made with store-bought dressing. But when I make my own salad dressing, sometimes I do want to eat salad. Correlation? Causation? Who’s to say? In any event, here’s a great new salad dressing that was really different from anything I’d ever made before. It uses poppy seeds, […]

When I was a kid, I had a dog that used to collect rocks. She used to dig in the ground for them and pile them up under trees and chew on them and steal them from children. She would have liked this crisp! I’ve always thought “stone fruit” was a funny name for something edible. It’s not exactly that stones are unappealing, but when I think “inedible rock-like substance,” I don’t exactly think, “name of a delicious, sweet, ripe, […]

Preparing your own fresh batch of homemade ketchup is so much easier than you’d think! All you need is a few fresh tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients are most likely already in your pantry. Seriously. The first part of the process takes some time since the vinegar has to boil down to almost nothing, leaving only the flavor. But, once the boiling is over, all you need to do is transfer the remaining ingredients to a Magic Bullet cup and blend them together to […]

The other day I was craving peanut butter and got out a slice of bread to make a peanut butter sandwich. When I opened my refrigerator up, I realized I was out of peanut butter! Then I saw some roasted peanuts… so, naturally, you know what came next! Homemade peanut butter! Why didn’t I think of making it from scratch before? It couldn’t be easier – only a few ingredients, peanuts, honey, oil and salt. You can make it crunchy […]

I don’t actually know if this counts as ranch dressing.. but it’s sure dang good. And sure only takes but a second to make. And is like, waaay better than that stuff you buy at the store. So, I’m gonna go ahead and call it ranch. You could dip some veggies in it. Or pour it on a salad. Or, just, I don’t know.. drink it? Ha! Sour Cream Ranch Ingredients 1 tbsp mayonnaise 1/4 cup sour cream 2 tsp […]

Hi Everybody! It’s me Chef Scott…. bringing you yet another entry from the “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” file. Chicken Pot Pie? In my Magic Bullet?? Why would you do that? Why WOULDN’T you do that?! Okay… disclosure alert: Although I am well established in my pastry prowess, I admit that some things in the kitchen continue to flummox and baffle me. For example, Gravy. What is it that I can’t seem to grasp? How can something so easily […]